Swat the Taliban

ET BureauMay 8, 2009, 02.40am IST

On the face of it, given that the Pakistan army recently moved rather decisively against the Taliban who had occupied Buner and Dir areas, the imminent offensive against the group in Swat could well be the much-delayed operation the world was pressing for.

Even if the Sharia deal was a shrewd move by the government — to first see if the Taliban could be contained within the region, and some peace restored, failing which the state could claim to be forced to act militarily — it is clear that defeating the Taliban, and Islamic extremism, is a far bigger task than merely ousting the group from Swat.

That said, the operation in Swat is extremely critical, and it must succeed if the far more dangerous Taliban encroachment into Punjab is to be halted. However, the twin factors of the lack of political consensus within Pakistan and its root cause, the unreformed nature of Pakistan's polity, will continue to provide fertile ground for Islamic extremism — and its tribal variant, the Taliban movement.

The latter, it is clear, is preying on the deep socio-economic fissures in Pakistan's polity. Both in the tribal areas and increasingly in parts of Punjab, they have exploited the basic inequalities of a feudal setup to try and replace the extant power structure. Reforming this setup, ultimately, by envisaging a genuine democracy, and the developmental agenda that fosters inclusiveness, is the sole lasting solution to the problem.

That, however, given that Pakistan's political elite continues to squabble over sharing state power, seems a long way off, even a utopian impossibility. Thus, the focus, not least of the Americans (and with their acquiescence, of the influential Saudis) has been to try and bring the political parties to some agreement.